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Thor Halvorssen On Bernie Sanders

During the 2016 Presidential Election, social issues have emerged with which many of us are completely unfamiliar. Those who are familiar with these issues want to stand before the nation and tell them that it is not as simple as it is made out to be. Economics is complicated. It is not as simple as saying that rich people have to much money and poor people do not have enough. In this video, Thor Halvorssen did just that. While he sympathizes with the objection that some people really are greedy, he thinks that socialism does not offer any plausible solutions to this problem.

Redistribution of Wealth
Suppose you were to encounter a very rich man. He or she went to school for years and became a doctor. Accordingly, he or she could buy anything that he wanted. On the other hand, you are struggling to get by. You barely have enough money for groceries and your rent. Do you have the right to approach that individual and demand that he give you a portion of his income? Are you entitled to 10 percent of the doctor’s income, just because you are struggling? Of course not. He went to medical school and earned his high-paying career as a doctor. The fact that somebody is rich does not entitle you to a portion of their income. That is precisely what redistribution of wealth proposes. Halvorssen rejects that model.

A further problem with redistribution of wealth is that the rich people eventually run out of money. You cannot tax them indefinitely. This egalitarian tax may be a temporary solution, but it will cause a lot of long-term problems. For when the rich run out of money, who do you need to begin taxing? You begin taxing those who are a little less rich. Then you slide down through the classes until the poor are being taxed as much as the rich.

According to this article from Huffington Post, Thor Halvorssen offers a sobering criticism of this model. Criticism of socialism really has not received enough media attention. When a rational person, such as Thor Halvorssen, presents this material, it is difficult to ignore.